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Sunday, October 28, 2012

Just last weekend I was out and about enjoying the historic working Grist Mill in Sudbury MA. The skies were clear and blue and the temperatures were in the low 70's. There wasn't a hint in the air of what was going to be bearing down on the Northeast Region in only a week.
We have been preparing for a hurricane that is looming towards us here in the Northeast. A monster storm that is more than a 1000 miles wide. We will most likely have major power outages. There is not much to do other than sit and wait. I will be bringing in lots of wood from the wood pile while it is still dry and safe to do so. We have a line of pine trees that border our back hill and huge oaks that surround our house on three sides. We are hoping all the trees stay in the ground where they belong.
Good luck to all the people in New Jersey and New York who will be taking a direct hit from Hurricane Sandy.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

How exciting it was to watch the cranberry harvest in full swing this afternoon. Some of you might remember that I live just a few minutes away from a gorgeous cranberry bog. Here in Massachusetts our cranberries are usually harvested around this time of year. The most common way to harvest cranberries is to water
harvest them. The cranberry beds are flooded and the cranberry is beaten off
the vine using a specialized harvester. The floating cranberries are then
corralled and loaded onto trucks for delivery to where ever they go to be processed.
Wet harvested cranberries are used only for processed cranberry products like sauce and juice. Dry harvested fruit is combed from the vines
using a mechanized picking machine. There is no water involved during this
process. The dry cranberries are loaded into huge bins, washed and then packaged.

Here they are with a section of the corralled cranberries. As you can see from my photos, I was fortunate enough to watch the wet harvest this afternoon. I seem to always miss the dry harvest.

Look at the size of the truck they just loaded. That's a lot of cranberry sauce, wouldn't you say.

Take a look at how beautiful they are floating in their beds. I had all I could do not to jump in and help. The workers made it look so easy and fun. I will be patient and wait to purchase my dry harvest bag of cranberries across the street at Great Brook Farm.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Another easy salmon recipe. The hardest part was waiting for it to finish cooking on the grill.
Slice a red onion and saute for five minutes in a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Add one cup apple cider to the onions and cook until the cider has evaporated. While the onions are cooking, salt and pepper you salmon fillets and pour one tablespoon of maple syrup over each fillet. Wrap the fillets in a double layer of aluminum foil and grill for ten minutes. When ready to serve, top the salmon with the cider glazed onions.

I served the maple salmon with a fall inspired brown rice. Dried cranberries, chopped broccoli and slivered toasted almonds were added into the pot of cooked brown rice. Delicious!